Although he didn’t mention Rick Santorum by name, Mitt Romney emphasized in his speech last night that he was the only candidate in the race who was not a Washington insider. Santorum was dismissive of Romney’s outsider claim this morning, reportsThe Hill:

“Gov. Romney, ‘Mr. Outsider,’ was for government takeover of healthcare, was for government takeover of the private sector in the Wall Street bailout, and was for the government takeover of industry and energy with cap-and-trade,” Santorum said on CNN. “So ‘Mr. Private Sector’ was ‘Mr. Big Government’ when he was out there running.”

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Santorum blasted Romney for running as a Washington outsider, alleging that the circumstances that led Romney to leave government were different from how they have been portrayed.

“I ran for the U.S. Senate the same year Mitt Romney ran for the U.S. Senate, and I won,” Santorum said. “It’s not that Gov. Romney didn’t want to be Sen. Romney — he wanted to be Sen. Romney, but he ran as a very liberal Republican in Massachusetts who had just become a Republican, and he lost. He lost badly in a year when Republicans had one of the biggest Republican sweeps in history, when the Republican revolution occurred.”

And on Fox this morning, Santorum responded to the Romney campaign’s attacks on his earmark record. “He says I earmark. He’s for the biggest earmark in the history of the country — he’s for the Wall Street bailout,” Santorum said, per GOP12.